$Unique_ID{bob00406} $Pretitle{} $Title{Nepal Chapter 4A. Languages} $Subtitle{} $Author{George L. Harris} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{languages pahari groups language tarai nepal ethnic nepali country eastern see tables } $Date{1973} $Log{See Table 2.*0040601.tab See Table 3.*0040602.tab } Title: Nepal Book: Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, An Area Study: Nepal Author: George L. Harris Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1973 Chapter 4A. Languages Settled in ancient times by peoples from India to the south and west and Tibet to the north and east, Nepal has been more or less continuously subject to cultural influences from these two centers of civilization. It has in turn influenced them. Thus, Tibet received its script from Nepal in the Malla period. From Nepal also the pagoda style of architecture spread throughout the East. The country's population is ethnically complex, ranging in physical type and culture from the Indian to the Tibetan. Except for the sizable population of Indian birth or ancestry concentrated in the Tarai on the border with India and a few thousand refugees from Chinese-Communist-dominated Tibet, all of the varied ethnic groups into which the Nepalese are divided have evolved distinctive patterns of their own. The north Indian antecedents of a number of caste groups which make up nearly half of the total population are evident in their language, religion, social organization and physical appearance, but all of these features have been modified in the Nepalese environment. These groups-several castes of Brahmans, the high-ranking Thakuri and Chetri castes and an untouchable category-have been classified as Pahari (Parbate) from their historic north Indian connections, although the term has only a limited use in Nepal and the Pahari groups are known by their individual caste names. Nepali, the native tongue of the Pahari (and the official language of the country), is closely related to but by no means identical with Hindi. The Hinduism of the Pahari has been influenced both by Buddhism and by indigenous folk belief. The caste system of the Pahari is neither as elaborately graded nor as all embracing in its sanctions as that of the Indians; and physically many of the Pahari show the results of intermixture with the Mongoloid peoples of the region. Similarly, the Bhote groups of the high Himalayas-among whom the mountaineering Sherpa have attracted the attention of the outside world-although clearly related physically and culturally to the Tibetans, have developed regional distinctions among themselves. "Bhote" is also a generic term, applied to persons of Tibetan culture and Mongoloid physical type. As used by the Pahari and the Newar it has a pejorative connotation and may be applied to any non-Hindu of Mongoloid appearance (see fig. 7). An extraordinarily complex terrain has contributed to the human complexity. The deeply cut valleys and high ridges of the Himalayan massif, in which the northern three-fourths of the country lies, have tended to divide the various ethnic populations themselves into many small, isolated and relatively self-sufficient communities. Travel is still largely over footpaths following the generally north to south meanderings of the principal river systems. East and west movement, except in the lowlands of the Tarai, is made difficult by the prevailing direction of the mountain ridges. The regionalizing effect of the terrain is apparent in the predominantly Indian character of the Tarai, which is an extension of the Gangetic Plain; in the clustering of Tibetan-related languages and local cultures in the northern and eastern parts of the country and of Indian-derived patterns in the west and south; and in the historic distinctiveness and relative isolation of the central valley enclave of Katmandu. Finally, the nature of the landscape has led to a vertical as well as a lateral sorting of the population, with most of the ethnic groups characteristically being found at particular altitudes. Subsistence pattern is evidently the determining factor, and the distribution ranges from the Indians of the Tarai, who cultivate irrigated rice on the Gangetic Plain, to the Sherpa, whose dry fields and pastures are often at 10,000 feet and above. Historical origin and continued linguistic and cultural connections make it possible to classify most ethnic groups into two categories: Indo-Nepalese and Tibeto-Nepalese. The Indo-Nepalese category, which includes the Pahari, the Indians of the Tarai, the Newar and the Tharu, comprises perhaps 7.8 million persons, or nearly 80 percent of the total population. Of these four Indo-Nepalese groups, the Pahari was by far the largest, numbering more than 4 million in 1954, according to the last ethnic census data available. Although found throughout the country, the bulk of the Indo-Nepalese population is located in the Tarai and the Katmandu Valley. Most of the principal Tibeto-Nepalese groups-the Tamang, Rai, Limbu, Bhote and Sunwar-live in the north and east, although the Magar and Gurung are found in west-central Nepal. Only three, the Tamang, Magar and Rai, exceeded 200,000 persons in 1954, whereas the Sunwar numbered about 17,000. It seems probable, however, that the peoples on the northern rim of the country-the Bhote, in particular-were underestimated in the 1952-54 census, no actual count having made in that area. It is the Tibeto-Nepalese groups-particularly the Magar, Gurung and Rai-who have supplied the bulk of the famous Gurkha contingents to the British and Indian armies, although their ranks have been augmented from the Thakuri and Chetri castes of the Indo-Nepalese Pahari. Not an ethnic designation, the term "Gurkha" derives from the name of the former Kingdom of Gorkha, west of the Katmandu Valley (see ch. 2, Historical Setting; ch. 22, The Armed Forces). The royal house of Nepal is Thakuri, and the Chetri caste supplied the Rana line of hereditary prime ministers who ruled the country for a hundred years until 1951, when the royal authority was restored. Nearly half of the estimated 480,000 inhabitants of the Katmandu Valley in 1963 were Pahari, and a large proportion of the wealthiest, best educated and politically most influential persons in the country came from the highest castes of this group. Most of the other half of the population of the Katmandu Valley consisted of the Newar. Known today for their business acumen and handicraft skills, the Newar developed a high degree of civilization in the Valley long before the Pahari conquest in the eighteenth century. They are interesting as a people of Mongoloid-North Indian ancestry, Tibetan-related speech, and mixed Buddhist-Hindu religious orientation, whose Hinduization over the centuries places them with the Pahari in the Indo-Nepalese category (see table 2.) [See Table 2.: Principal Ethnic Groups of Nepal, 1952-54] Although many members of the Tibeto-Nepalese groups, especially among the Gurung, Magar and Rai, have adopted Hindu religious beliefs and practices, these peoples remain basically Buddhist. A sizable and growing percentage of the Tibeto-Nepalese groups reportedly can speak Nepali, and probably a majority of them have some knowledge of the language. Slowly and unevenly these peoples are being drawn into a national framework of thought and activity by the development of public education, the extension of trade and the operation of the panchayat system. There are no signs, however, that basic ethnic identities are disappearing, and all of these peoples preserve their Tibeto-Burman languages and dialects and their traditional culture. None, as a group at least, has adopted the Hindu caste system, although the dominant Pahari and Newar tend to regard the Tibeto-Nepalese groups as so many unitary castes and to rank them below themselves. Most of the languages spoken in the country belong either to the Indo-European family, represented in India by Hindi among others, or to the Tibeto-Burman family, of which Tibetan is a member. The speakers of the Nepalese languages of these two families, except for the Newar, fall into the Indo-Nepalese and the Tibeto-Nepalese ethnic categories, respectively. A third speech family, the Austro-Asiatic of India, is also thought to be represented by the languages of several Indo-Nepalese groups. Local isolation had produced marked dialect differences within particular languages and, within a given ethnic group, speech may vary widely from one area to another. Nepali, with a number of related Indian languages, had historical connections with Sanskrit. It is the mother tongue of the numerically and politically dominant Pahari and the official language of the nation. Its use by the Pahari makes it the first language of about half of the total population, and the estimated 13 percent in other groups throughout the country who had some knowledge of it in 1954 has undoubtedly increased. This trend will continue with the growth of the public school system, in which Nepali is the basic medium of instruction. Moreover, there appears to have been some tendency for non-Pahari communities in predominantly Pahari areas to abandon their own speech for Pahari, as appears to be the case with the Magar. The Newar of the Katmandu Valley, however, provide an example of a group which determinedly has preserved its own language though it has accepted Nepali for use in the community at large. It seems probable that a similar pattern will prevail among the other principal non-Pahari groups for the indefinite future. Languages The census of 1952-54 listed 30 languages and dialects and 5 regional groups of local dialects. Of the total, however, about 20 languages were spoken by fewer than 1,000 persons each. Three great language families are thought to be represented in the country: Indo-European, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic. Little research has been done on the indigenous languages, however, and classification of many of them remains tentative (see table 3). The most widely spoken languages belong to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family. They include Eastern Pahari, or Nepali, five regional groupings of local dialects found in the Tarai, and five languages spoken by the Indians of the Tarai: Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Bhojpuri and Maithili. While all of these languages are related to each other, they are not all mutually intelligible. The Tibeto-Burman languages include Magar, Gurung, Rai, Limbu, Sunwar, Tamang, Newari and a number of Bhote dialects, including Sherpa and Thakali. Dhimal, Hayu and Thami appear to be closely related to Limbu and Rai, but some authorities suggest connections with the Munda branch of the Austro-Asiatic family. Munda languages are spoken mainly in the tribal areas of the Indian States of Orissa, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. In Nepal, these languages are thought to include Chepang, Danuwar, Darai, Kumkale, Jirel and Jhangar, spoken mainly by small groups in the Tarai. [See Table 3.: Languages of Nepal by Percentage of the National Population, 1952-54] The languages of the north and east belong predominantly to the Tibeto-Burman family. Aside from the speculative Munda connection, the Kiranti languages of eastern Nepal-Limbu, Rai, Dhimal, Thami and Hayu-which seem to be related to the Lepcha language of Sikkim, are generally considered to be Tibeto-Burman. Newari likewise is commonly placed in the Tibeto-Burman family, but some authorities suggest that it may be derived from an early language of India which subsequently was influenced by both Tibeto-Burman and Indo-European languages. The south and west are areas of Indo-European speech. A few Austro-Asiatic enclaves, with tentative connections with languages of this family in India, are present but the number of speakers is small. Nepali is the dominant language of the Western Mountain, the Eastern Mountain and the Eastern Inner Tarai Regions. Many people in the Katmandu Valley and in both of the Inner Tarai Regions also speak it. Only in the Tarai itself does it occupy a relatively minor position as a first language. In the Western Inner Tarai and Far Western Tarai Regions more than half of the people speak Tharuhati, the Hindi-influenced language of the Tharu. Newari is the native tongue of more than half of the population of the Katmandu Valley. In the Eastern and Midwestern Tarai Regions a number of Indian languages and dialects are spoken, none clearly overshadowing the others. The Pahari dialects, of which Nepali is one, fall into three main divisions, Eastern, Central and Western. Eastern Pahari, officially known as Nepali, is also called Parbatiya-bhasha (language of the mountain people), Khaskura (language of the Kha), or Gurkhali or Gorkhali (from the ancient Kingdom of Gorkha). Western Pahari is represented by a number of local dialects in Kashmir. Central Pahari is found in the Far Western Region of Nepal, but it centers in the mountain areas of Uttar Pradesh in India. Eastern Pahari differs from Central and Western Pahari mainly in having been more strongly influenced by Tibeto-Burman languages. Nepali, or Eastern Pahari, is reported to have three main subdialects, but detailed information about them is lacking. Although the principal languages are centered in particular regions, speakers of most of them may be encountered in various parts of the country, especially in the larger towns. Nepali, long before it acquired its status as the official national language, was employed as a lingua franca by members of the different speech communities in their dealings with each other, and the knowledge of it is spreading. There are indications that in some ethnic communities it is actually displacing other languages. Of the indigenous languages, only Pahari and Newari have developed a literature of their own, both using scripts derived from Sanskrit. The Limbu have a script, which they reportedly are trying to revive after a long period of disuse. A Limbu chronicle and other works in this script are said to have been destroyed during the Pahari conquest, and none has since come to light. Most of the people in the north are adherents of Buddhism of the Tibetan type, and many have some knowledge of the Buddhist scriptures in Tibetan.